Foresight Reserves

Foresight Reserves LLC is a private company primarily owned by Chris Cline. Cline estimates that mining rights to his 4 billion tons of Illinois coal are worth at least $3 billion. Dennis Kostic, president of consulting firm Weir International, puts the value at $4 billion. Cline exports 40 percent of his coal, mainly to Europe, and increasingly to China and India. As of October 2010, Cline is considering taking the company public.

History
Cline bought Appalachia coal before EPA required the installation of scrubbers on newer coal plants to lower sulfur dioxide emissions. Demand for high-sulfur Appalachia coal rose, and Cline raised $1.2 billion to build coal mines.

Coal Mines
Pond Creek was Cline's first Illinois mine, and uses longwall mining. Other mines include Sugar Camp and Hillsboro. According to an article in Bloomberg, Cline is buying locomotives, building a port on the Ohio River, and designing his own oceangoing ships to expand the company's coal mining operations.

CEO Chris Cline
Cline has tried to distribute literature at his childrens' school suggesting that climate change may be caused by clusters of sunspots or the Earth wobbling on its axis, not just carbon. When the school refused due to lack of scientific support for these theories, he complained to school fundraisers. He calls coal "a moral imperative" for the world's poor, and describes Massey Energy's Don Blankenship, CEO during the Upper Big Branch Mine Disaster, as one of the coal industry’s "most talented leaders."

Affiliations and Mines
The following companies and mines have been directly or indirectly affiliated with Chris Cline:


 * Adena Minerals LLC
 * Broad Run Mine
 * Buckeye Plant (coal processing plant associated with Gatling Ohio's Yellowbush Mine)
 * The Carlye Group (Carlyle/Riverstone Energy III)
 * The Cline Group
 * Cline Resource and Development Company
 * Foresight Reserves, LP
 * Foresight Energy LLC
 * Gatling Ohio LLC
 * Macoupin Energy LLC
 * Natural Resource Partners L.P.
 * Shay Mine No. 1, formerly Monterey Mine No. 1
 * Yellowbush Mine (Gatling Ohio)

Coal Transport
In June 2011, Canadian National Railway said it will sell assets of its indirect subsidiary, IC RailMarine Terminal Co, for $73 million to an affiliate of Foresight Energy and the Cline Group. CN also said it had entered a related 10-year coal transportation agreement with another affiliate of Foresight and Cline - Savatran LLC - to increase its participation in the growing export of Illinois Basin coal.

Foresight Energy has about 3 billion tons of coal reserves and coal production from four mining complexes in Illinois. The IC RailMarine terminal, which is located on the east bank of the Mississippi River at Convent, Louisiana, stores and transfers bulk commodities and liquids globally between rail, ship and barge. Foresight said it will double the capacity of the terminal to 8 million tons of export coal per year, with the potential for an additional expansion of 8 million tons

CN said it will enter the rail transportation agreement with Savatran LLC after the terminal deal closes. The coal transportation agreement entails hauling of coal from four Illinois mines to the Convent transfer facility. Under the terms of the deal, Savatran will ship a minimum annual volume of coal via CN.

Related SourceWatch Articles

 * Existing U.S. Coal Plants
 * Illinois and coal
 * United States and coal
 * Global warming

External Articles

 * John Lippert and Mario Parker, "Coal's comeback", Washington Post, October 31, 2010. (This is a Bloomberg News story).